Federal and state governments are responsible for protecting the welfare of its citizens. As a consequence, programs have been established that offer financial assistance or benefits to those citizens whose income meets or falls below the poverty line. For example, certain individuals or families may receive food stamps and/or other cash benefits (such as under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (“TANF”) program) to supplement their income.
Overall in the United States, the number of individuals and families who participate in these programs is increasing. This increase in the number of participants in government sponsored benefits programs is creating a higher caseload, which is not manageable using the legacy systems, which have been used to manage benefits. Such systems have also been difficult to upgrade and connect with other systems and new programs because of the wide variety of legacy systems, including different programming languages, database systems, and operating systems.
In light of the aforementioned problems encountered by existing government sponsored benefits programs there is a need to provide better means for tracking and managing government sponsored cash and non-cash benefits.